30-year-old gets 33 years to life for Near East Side killing

A 30-year-old man was sentenced yesterday afternoon to life in prison with no chance of parole for 33 years in a shooting death on the Near East Side.

John Futty, The Columbus Dispatch

A 30-year-old man was sentenced yesterday afternoon to life in prison with no chance of parole for 33 years in a shooting death on the Near East Side.

Charles T. Daniels had been convicted earlier in the day by a Franklin County jury of killing 36-year-old Andre Martin during a fight in the 400 block of Stoddart Avenue on May 21.

The jurors deliberated for about six hours over two days before finding Daniels guilty of aggravated murder with a gun specification and illegally possessing a firearm.

Common Pleas Judge Tim Horton imposed a sentence of 30 years to life, plus three years because Daniels used a gun.

He ruled that a three-year penalty for Daniels’ possession of a weapon despite a previous felony drug conviction would run concurrent to the other sentences.

Three witnesses testified that an argument between Daniels and Martin escalated into a fistfight before Daniels got a gun and started shooting. Martin ran as the shots were being fired and was trying to hide behind a parked car when one of the shots struck him in the back and exited his chest.

Mortally wounded, he fled to the front porch of 422 Stoddart Ave., where he collapsed.

The defense focused on another gunman who entered the fray. Tommy Lee Lovely testified that he was across the street and fired a revolver to defend Martin.

Police didn’t recover the murder weapon or the fatal bullet but found nine 9 mm shell casings around the car where Martin was shot. No shell casings were found in the area where Lovely was standing. Revolvers don’t eject shell casings when fired.